Party Like It’s 1994: The Best SF Sports Bars to Watch the Niners on Sunday

Jan 30, 2013 —
Okay, San Franciscans, if you aren’t excited for Super Bowl Sunday, you should probably go to the doctor and make sure you have a pulse. Sure, your Giants won another World Series last fall – no big deal, we know – but this is the first time since 1994 (when Steve Young was still slinging it to Jerry Rice) that your beloved 49ers are in the Super Bowl.

So get off your couches and head to one of the city’s best bars to watch the game with other anxious and excited 49er fans who will share your joy when Colin Kaepernick and Frank Gore trot into the end zone, and your pain when Patrick Willis and the D give up a long bomb to Joe Flacco.

Instead of worrying about cleaning up a mess of chips that spilled onto your living room carpet after a buddy (or you) smacked the table following a Ravens score, relax at the bar where you can stuff your face with delicious food and booze and not fret about cleaning it up.

Plus, if your 49ers win, you’re already in a prime place in the city to celebrate with other diehards. Good luck, 49ers fans. Hopefully you can dust off the old Young and Rice jerseys and party like it’s 1994!

An upscale restaurant for sports lovers, The Republic offers its affluent Marina clientele a place to both comfortably enjoy a game and indulge in some vivacious nightlife.
Young locals in nice jeans and Giants caps plant themselves at the zinc-topped bar for prime access to the twenty craft beers on tap, while gangs of J. Crew

Part community center, part museum, and part hangout for the old-line Giants faithful, Gino and Carlo Sports Bar has been a Telegraph Hill institution since the 1940s, and continues to attract a mix of both die-hard fans and patrons who couldn't care less about sports games.
The long bar, which looks out onto old chairs and chipped tables full of

Located in tourist-heavy Fisherman’s Wharf, The Parlor is equal parts dance club, sports bar, and classic cocktail lounge.
Daily Happy Hours entice preppy young Giants fans from the nearby Marina to drop in for a game and a Bud, not to mention the tidal waves of out-of-towners making a pit stop before hitting the area’s specialty shops, museums,

With standard-issue Guinness signs, tarnished mirrors, Celtic script, and an abundance of dark hardwood, the Irish vibe is alive and smilin’ at Chug Pub, clearly a nod to its former life as The Dubliner.
The addition of several large screens tuned to nothing but baseball and football, however – not to mention some of the biggest beers in town –

Located several blocks down from the patchouli-scented paradise of the Upper Haight, where it shares a block packed with everything from punk dives to casual wine bars, Mad Dog In The Fog is a lively neighborhood pub with tons of beer, a diehard devotion to soccer, and regular trivia nights that are the stuff of legend.
The long front room touts a

Easy walking distance from the high rises towering over Downtown, Steff’s Sports Bar is a relaxed dive with lots of TVs and very little pretense.
Mostly mellow during the week, the joint is popular with financial types who often sneak in during lunch, shedding their ties at the dark wooden bar and sipping a few Buds under the approving eyes of the

Tucked a few blocks away from its bustling Downtown namesake, Union Square Sports Bar is a safe haven for sports lovers fleeing a shopping trip and tourists looking to escape the crowds.
Dimly lit by neon sports logos and beer signs, the long bar tends to fill up with office types and nearby hotel guests in the early evening, although the venue’s

Eighteen beers on tap, TVs all around, and walls covered with photos, posters, clippings, and anything else related to sports all combine to make Greens Sports Bar one of the city’s most dedicated houses of worship to the holy trinity of baseball, football, and basketball.
Hockey, golf, soccer, and probably even horseshoes are also welcome here,

The bartenders may pour lots of creamy Guinness like at any Irish bar, but Blackthorn Tavern is more than just another quaint pub to snag a pint. And though more than a dozen flat-screen TVs dedicated to football, baseball, basketball, soccer, UFC fights, and boxing make the place a top-notch sports bar, it isn’t just another jock hangout either.

Situated on trendy Union Street, Bus Stop is a neighborhood sports bar popular with relaxed Giants-loving regulars on game days and more boisterous twenty-something social butterflies on Friday and Saturday nights.
Weekdays see middle-aged sports buffs in baseball hats and college football sweatshirts hanging out in the glow of the myriad overhead